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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Easy Cake Pops - From Scratch

Cake Pops 6

Cake Pops 2

Cake Popos 6

Cake pops are not common in this part of the world. I may be wrong, but from what I have come to understand from my limited surfing experience in the blogosphere, it was Angie of Bakerella who had almost single handedly created the trend around these portable, pretty little treats. Bakerella's creation are adorable and delightful - they evoke sweet childhood lollipop memories and have the power to make the most apathetic adult squeal 'So CUUUTE!!'. These clever little sweets have become so popular that even Starbucks in the US are selling them now. Perhaps, soon, very soon... we will get to see them here at our local Starbucks stores too..

When I learnt that Jeroxie's theme for the International Incident Party Event this month is Cake Pops, I thought it would be a perfect excuse to try my hand at making them. (Only, I have just found out that I have missed the dateline.. I never seem to be good at this. Last month, I failed to read the instructions carefully and published my article too early. This month, assuming the dateline is the same, I have only now discovered that the event was closed yesterday.... sigh)

Most of the recipes published in food blogs seem to use Cake premixes and canned frosting. I prefer to attempt this from scratch. The recipe I have chosen is the very easy Martha Stewart One Bowl Chocolate cupcake. Reason being, it is simple, moist and fine crumbed. Cream cheese frosting is not difficult to make as demonstrated in my Peter Rabbit Carrot Cupcake. I took the easy approach towards dressing up the pops. Not one to fiddle with cartoon characters or other cutesy shapes, I chose a very safe and adult approach - coating them with Valhorna Bittersweet chocolate - which was easier than I had expected.

Cake Pops 1
The biggest challenge, to my chagrin, was photographing these cake pops. I was trying to figure out some way to get them to stand up stylishly for the photos and had been exhausting all the bric bracs in my cabinet... I have never had such a messy photo shooting session ever and had to spend a good hour cleaning up afterwards.

So here, I am, late for the party but as Xiaolu of 6 Bittersweets had quite sweetly put it - I can just be fashionably late for the party... I only hope these are fashionable enough!

Please hop on over to Jeroxie's website to check out the other cake pop ideas at the party!

Cake Pops 7 (250)

Recipe : (From Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook)

1 1/2 cups              all-purpose flour
3/4 cups                 unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup               sugar
1 1/2 tsp                baking soda
3/4 tsp                   baking powder
3/4 tsp                   salt
2                           large eggs
3/4 cup                 butter milk
3 tbsp                   vegetable oil
1tsp                      vanilla extract
3/4 cups               warm water

Cream Cheese Frosting (refer to here)

Embellishment : melted semi sweet chocolate, chopped roastd peanuts, cocoa powder, tinted melted white chocolate

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Line a cake pan with parchment paper.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocao, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, milk, oil, extract and water.
4. Mix well until smooth. Pour into cake pan and bake for 20-30mins or until an inserted testing skewer comes out clean.
5. Cool down the cake completely.

Assembly & Embellishment :
1. Crumble the cake into a mixing bowl. Add cream cheese frosting to the cake crumbs and mix well. ( I use 80g of frosting to bind 300g of cake crumbs)
2. Bind the cake crumbs into little balls. Each of my ball weighs about 30g.
3. Place the balls in the freezer for about 15 mins. (important! This will make it easy when you coat the balls with chocolate)
4. First dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate.(see tutorial here)
5. Push the lollipop stick into the cake balls. Dip the cake pop into the melted chocolate to coat the cake ball. Tap off excess coating.
6. Let it dry a little before coating it with peanuts or cocoa powder. Stand the pops in a styrofoam slab and leave it in the fridge.

40 comments:

Joyce @ Chunky Cooky said...

Lovely cake pops ! So tempting to try one ! By the way, the pink and blue pokka dots cake wrappers look great. Can I know where did you get them from ?

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

@Joyce- thanks. The cup cake liners are from Donna Hay shop in Sydney :)

hanushi said...

This is so cute and inviting!!! Your photos are really pretty...

Zurin said...

Good for you Shirley! To make everything from scratch. I like that. You have fotographed them very elegantly. Worth the time and mess after.

Cake pops are indeed soso cute! I'll probably never make them because It looks like so much work. But then again never say never. :)

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

I'm so glad you posted these are they are ADORABLE and I love that you made different looks. Very creative way you eventually settled on to display them. Cuteness to the max! As I said in my post, the Starbucks ones are gross (at least right now...hopefully they'll update their formula) so you guys aren't missing out on anything. Better to make from scratch as you have.

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

My kids sure love this cute cake pops! Let me find time to make this for them. Thanks for sharing.

Allie said...

Shirley, your photography and styling skills are amazing! These look very Donna Hay, very pretty!

Jean said...

wow they look totally adorable! i can sure stuff a few of these into my mouth at one go ;)

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

@Allie - Thanks! You make me blush...Donna Hay is incomparable :)

Yoanna said...

Pretty!

grub said...

your cake pops are so cute ^^ i like how you decorated them differently. i've made cake pops once with some overflowing-in-the-pan moist chocolate cake and it was quite yummy.

CaThY said...

lovely pops ;)

La Table De Nana said...

Your little desserts get cuter and cuter:)

Cool Chic Style Fashion said...

Una simpatica realizzazione dolce, ciao ☺ ♥

Yi Chin said...

Hello! Your blog is fantastic! I have tried the cake pops at the starbucks here (malaysia) when they were first introduced. They gave out free testers and I was curious. The first thought was... Gosh it looked really sweet! When I tried it, it was yummy and did not expect the texture to be so velvety. Since xialu mentioned the ones at Starbucks are gross, I can't wait to try out your recipe! :)

Joanne said...

I am the WORST when it comes to deadlines! Looks like these cake pops came off fabulously though! Absolutely adorable.

mycookinghut said...

Such adorable cake pops!!

Juliana said...

The cake pops are so so cute...what a great way to serve cake...love how you decorated with nuts. Have a great week ahead Shirley :-)

daphne said...

They are SO pretty! I think it is also a great party food as well. This idea is fantastic- a friend asked me to make them for her wedding but I couldn't due to time. Now I wish I could have tried! that's ok, i can still do it another time :)

petite nyonya said...

cake pops are definitely popping up as the new trend setter these days. lovely pops u've made!

Anonymous said...

looks like you jumped on the bandwagon! cake pops seem like the next cupcake yeah? seeing them everywhere!

Quay Po Cooks said...

Oh Shirley, your post on the adorable lovely cake pops make me want to try my hands on it. I love the compostion and color range you have chosen in the photos. I actually stayed for a while longer to enjoy your clicks!

penny aka jeroxie said...

Cake pops are so pretty and good to eat but very fiddly indeed. But I guess like macarons, after awhile it will be much easier!
Thanks for posting this. xoxo

Blessed Homemaker said...

I've kept a few cake crumbs/balance from levelling, wanting to make cake pops. My cakes are all still sitting nicely in my freezer :P I've seen Anncoo's and now yours, so tempted to make some too.

Anh said...

So. Cute! love these cake pops!

tigerfish said...

I have seen cake pops popping around these few days!

You know what? I was scrolling so fast that I first saw "sticks" from the cake pops, then saw the sambal quail eggs - then sudden thought - sambal quail eggs on a stick! Egg Pops?!?!? Sorry for self-amusing myself.

Jess said...

Fun! I'm making lolipops and cakepops for easter! These look awesome.

The Sweetylicious said...

is so lovely! as usual, you did an awesome job in taking photos of those cake pops! (: (: you're reminding me to utilise the cake pop book that i have! :P

The Experimental Cook said...

I love your blog and would like to give you this award. Please drop by to collect it ;)

pierre said...

nice fun recipe Bravo !!!Pierre

Mary Bergfeld said...

These sound wonderful and they have great eye appeal. This is my first visit to your site and I've spent some time browsing through your earlier entries. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you feature here. I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Cooking Gallery said...

Your food presentation is always amazing. I love how elegant the cakepops turn out!!

Maria said...

They do look so pretty!

Anonymous said...

Pretty cake pops! :)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I'm definitely one of those that coo whenever I see a cake pop. Not just because they're cute but because I know how much work goes into them! These look wonderful Shirley! :D

pigpigscorner said...

So cute! Better late thatn never!

Noob Cook said...

The colours are just so delightful, I'm a sucker for pastel tones. and of course these cake pops look absolutely delicious!

thecoffeesnob said...

These are so adorable! And I love how you used the egg cartons to hold the cake pops up!

Anna said...

They are so beautiful! My pupils will love them! :) Can't wait to make them this sweet surprise.

Kyou said...

wat is butter milk?

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